Chapter 48

His father had almost finished cooking that Wednesday, when Killer got a message from Penguin. 'Wanna come over for dinner on Saturday? I don't wanna eat alone.'

Killer smiled. 'Sure.' He'd take every chance to be alone with his boyfriend. He could just tell his dad he would eat at Wire's or Heat's, or maybe Bonney was the better option here. She'd cover for him if his dad decided to ask her for some reason.

He was going to tell his father of his weekend plans during dinner, but Kid beat him to it. "You'll be eating alone this Saturday. I'll be out having dinner with… a guy."

"Oh?" Killer asked surprised. "Where?" He wondered what the occasion was. His father didn't have many friends, not outside his work-buddies at least. Maybe he had decided to meet one of them after work.

"Don't know yet," his father answered him. "Still gotta pick a restaurant. You know a good place?"

Killer shrugged. It wasn't like he went to restaurants often, especially without his dad. He did go to this great all-you-can-eat place with Heat's family, a while back, though. He voiced this to his dad.

Kid frowned. "Hm, all-you-can-eat isn't really what I was going for."

"Well, then you gotta find something yourself." Killer shrugged again. "But in that case, I'm gonna eat at a friend's." He decided to keep it vague and pretend it was something that had just come to his mind.

"Okay." Kid nodded. "Who?"

"Don't know yet. Maybe Bonney."

"I still haven't met this girl you first dated and then became BFFs with, all of a sudden," his father said suspiciously.

"BFFs?!" Killer repeated. It was not a term he'd ever used, nor that he had expected his father to use. "She's just a normal friend."

Kid ignored him. "I'm beginning to think she doesn't exist."

"Seriously?" Killer rolled his eyes and took out his phone. He looked up a photo of him and Bonney that she had made at the last Hawkins Pirates performance, and showed it to his dad. "Do you need to meet her before I can have dinner at her place?" he asked annoyed.

"Nah, just text me her address if you go there." Kid grinned amused. "She looks like a nice girl, though. She's pretty."

Killer quickly pulled back his phone. "Ew, that's gross, dad. She's sixteen."

His father's expression turned into a scowl. "I didn't mean it like that, obviously. I meant for her age, for you. Why did you break up again?" A cheeky smile came back to his face. "Unless you found someone better…"

Killer felt a blush rise to his cheeks. "Of course not! I just didn't like her that way."

"Oh," Kid said knowingly, "so she dumped you?"

Killer felt like his father was trying to rile him up, but he refused to take the bait. "No," he said calmly. "I dumped her. But who cares anyway?"

Kid chuckled. "Just… you know you can tell me if there's someone else, right?"

Killer stared at him. Was he implying something or…? "Yeah," he said.

He meant no. Not when that someone was a guy, anyway.

Thursday evening, Penguin was lying on his bed. He had posted a new video on TikTok a little over an hour ago, and was watching the statistics carefully. It was doing pretty well already, even though it usually took a few hours before the video really hit the big numbers. The fact that it had already been watched and liked a lot, gave Penguin hope that this one might become the best performing video yet.

He had just put his phone away, when it vibrated. He had silenced notifications from TikTok, as his phone had started to give him those almost non-stop, so this had to be a message of some sort. He looked at his screen to see the preview of the message. It was Clione in their Puck Rock group, sending a video of something. Curious, Penguin opened the message and was a little shocked to see it was Killer's latest TikTok video. An accompanying text message appeared a few seconds later. 'Your boyfriend is pretty good, Penguin 😜'

Oh, shit. Penguin had had a feeling Clione knew what was going on, but for him to state it so obviously for the whole group to see it?! That was not good.

'Please stop,' he replied. He didn't want to deny Killer being his boyfriend, as he didn't like lying to the group, but at the same time he did want to make them think Killer wasn't his boyfriend.

'Stop what? Saying he's good?' Clione asked.

Penguin was typing his answer, but he was not fast enough to be quicker than Bartolomeo.

'I bet he wants to be the only one to say Killer's good… between the sheets 😜'

'Saying he's my boyfriend!' Penguin sent his message half a second after he received Bartolomeo's. A blush appeared on his cheeks. 'Fuck off Bart.'

'LMAO Penguin is too innocent for that!' Clione replied.

'Wait, Killer is your boyfriend?' this time it was Coby who said it.

'I told you, no!' Penguin didn't see another way out than to literally state it that way. He frowned at Clione's comment, though. He was not innocent.

'You sure? It seemed pretty obvious that day on the ice,' Ikkaku let herself be heard.

Had it really? Penguin hadn't thought they'd done anything couple-y when the others were around, but apparently some of them had noticed anyway…

'Not that obvious, I missed it,' Helmeppo said. 'But I can see it now…'

'Honestly, I don't care if he's your boyfriend or not, he rocks!' Gambia said.

Penguin smiled. 'Thanks! He does, doesn't he? 😊'

'Yeah, he's definitely your boyfriend.'

'Yep, boyfriend.'

'100% your boyfriend.'

The three messages from Bartolomeo, Helmeppo, and Ikkaku came in almost simultaneously.

'PENGUIN INNOCENT?! My ass!' Shachi finally replied to Clione's earlier message. 'The things I've had to hear!'

'LMAO,' was Clione's reply.

'Poor Shachi,' Ikkaku said.

Clione had to add to it. 'I can't imagine it, Penguin looks so pure and green.'

Penguin stared at his phone as the messages came in, his face red, but unable to say anything.

'Raise your hand if you think Penguin has never done anything more than a quick kiss on the lips 🙋' Clione challenged the group.

Uni immediately replied with his own '✋'. Coby, Helmeppo, Bartolomeo, and Gambia replied with their own raised hand soon after.

Penguin gritted his teeth. Why were they all pretending he was a child? 'Fuck you. I had his dick in my mouth just yesterday!' he replied, before thinking it through. As soon as he realized what he'd said, his cheeks heated up, and he removed the message as quickly as possible.

'Too late. I saw that,' he could just hear Clione's smug voice.

'Me too,' said Gambia

'Me 3,' added Bartolomeo.

'4,' Uni added.

'I wish I hadn't,' Shachi replied.

'Same^' This time it was Ikkaku. 'But I'm afraid we all had the chat open.'

'Shit, I missed it. What did he say?' was Coby's message.

'You don't wanna know,' Shachi said.

'Penguin sucked Killer's dick yesterday,' Gambia replied, nonetheless.

'Guys,' Penguin said, feeling miserable. Why had he let himself be stirred up to say that?

'😳 Nope, I did not want to know that,' Coby answered.

'But they're not boyfriends ,' Clione added.

'I guess Penguin sucks just anyone's dick,' Gambia replied.

'Are you offering, Penguin? 😜' Clione continued.

'GUYS! PLEASE,' Penguin texted, his head bright red. He was glad no one could see him. When nobody made a stupid remark for a few seconds, he thought he finally had their attention. 'This is serious. It's a secret. Killer is still in the closet, so you must all swear to keep it a secret.'

'I won't tell anyone,' Ikkaku was the first to answer.

'Me neither,' Coby and Uni both said.

'Depends on how famous he becomes and how much money I can get for it,' Clione replied. Penguin thought – or hoped – it was a joke. 'Until then, I'll keep it a secret.'

The rest stayed suspiciously silent, making Penguin even more worried. ' Helmeppo Gambia Bartolomeo promise me! Especially Bart and Gambia!'

'Oh I'm not special enough? I guess it won't matter if I tell anyone then,' Helmeppo answered.

Penguin rolled his eyes. 'You gotta promise too, but they know some of Killer's friends.'

'We do?' Bartolomeo asked. 'Oh, yeah, we do! He's friends with Wire, isn't he?'

'I don't see why we gotta promise anything like that,' Gambia answered. 'Wait, does that Bonney chick know?'

'Because you're a decent human being?' Ikkaku replied.

'Yes, Bonney knows,' Shachi answered his question. 'Only me and Bonney knew. Until now.'

'Listen, we barely know this Killer, we don't owe him anything,' Bartolomeo said. 'If I want to tell Wire, there's nothing stopping me.'

Penguin clenched his teeth. If Bartolomeo would tell Wire, Penguin wasn't sure Killer would forgive him. 'Then I guess you won't mind the world knowing about you and a certain blond figure skater either,' he said. It was a gamble, really, as he had no idea whether or not that was supposed to be a secret.

'WAIT WHAT?!' was Gambia's reaction.

'What are you talking about?' Bartolomeo replied. 'What figure skater? I have no idea who you're talking about.'

Penguin smiled victoriously. So, he had been right and he had hit a nerve.

'Oooh if something was obvious… it was Bart and Cavendish,' Ikkaku helped him.

'What?! Bart, what's going on? Call me right now!' Gambia, who was Bartolomeo's best friend, replied.

'Wait, are we outing guys in the group today?' Shachi asked. 'Cause I know about two more…'

'I promise not to tell anyone,' Helmeppo suddenly replied.

Penguin chuckled, and he let the group chat explode without him. In the end, everyone did promise to keep the secret – well, all their secrets.

On Thursday, Killer had gotten used to the staring people, the people whispering behind his back, and pointing at him. That, or it had already gotten less. Maybe it was a combination of both. Anyhow, Killer was glad he knew the reason why suddenly everyone seemed to know him, and it was a positive reason – or so he hoped. At least he hadn't gotten any negative comments because of the TikTok-videos.

And another good thing was that Drake didn't ask for his attention a lot anymore either. Sure, he sat down close to him whenever he could, but he didn't try to make conversation so often that it felt awkward to Killer.

On Friday things seemed more or less back to normal. He'd asked Penguin to let him know whenever he posted a new video, so he could be prepared for any more stares. However, Penguin told him he posted a new video the previous night, but this did not seem to spike his schoolmates' attention for Killer. So, either they hadn't seen it and the video didn't do well, or the people at school had gotten used to it. According to Penguin, the video was a hit, so it was probably the latter. Which Killer was glad of, to be honest. He didn't like being the center of attention, not when he wasn't asking for it, at least. He didn't mind people watching him play guitar, and he would gladly perform on a stage one day, but when he walked the hallways, he wanted to be treated like everyone else.

Since Killer's second period on Friday was a free period, he was early at his group's place in the canteen during their first break, which started right after second period. There were only a few people at their table yet who he didn't know all that well, when he saw Wire enter the canteen. His friend walked up to him with an earnest face.

"Killer, can I talk to you for a moment?" He said, his serious voice on. It wasn't often Killer heard or saw his friend this serious.

"Sure…" Killer straightened his back. "What's up?"

Wire shook his head. "Not here, let's go somewhere private."

Killer got a bad feeling. There was something very wrong for his friend to act so serious. Even when they had confronted him with the TikTok account, earlier that week, there had still been a hint of playfulness, which was now missing. He nodded and followed Wire out of the canteen, while his mind started to think of reasons why he wanted to talk to him. Was something wrong with him? Would he leave school? Was he seriously ill? He wasn't going to die, was he? Did someone else die? Maybe his grandmother died? Oh, no, Wire had the sweetest grandma.

After walking through the hallway for a bit, Wire opened the door of a classroom to check if it was empty. When he found out it was, he gestured Killer to come inside. "Sit," he said, and Killer did as he was told.

Wire closed the door and leaned against one of the desks. He crossed his arms and looked at Killer. It took him a few moments before he spoke, seeming to think of the right words to say. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" he finally asked.

Wait, what? Killer frowned. This was about him? "Sure…" he said, still a little confused. "I mean, unless this is about my girlfriend again, 'cause I told you she–"

"Cut the crap, Killer," Wire interrupted him sharply. "There is no girlfriend."

Killer staired at his friend with wide eyes. How did Wire know? What did he know? "What–"

Wire sighed. "If you know you can tell me anything… then… you know you can tell me if you're gay."

TBC~!

(Not) Sorry for leaving you with that cliffhanger~!

Thanks so much again CleoKitty20 for your review!